Is Your Home Loan Still Competitive? It Might Need an Urgent Health Check

Falling property prices are creating opportunities for buyers. But there is another side to the current market that existing homeowners should not ignore:

Banks still want your business.

When competition between lenders increases, better pricing, refinancing offers and sharper loan structures can become available. And that raises a very simple question:

Are you still paying the right amount for your home loan?

Many borrowers take out a mortgage, make their repayments every month and rarely look closely at it again. But a home loan is not something you should automatically leave untouched for 10, 15 or 20 years.

Your financial circumstances change and better options may become available.

Even a relatively small difference in your interest rate can have a significant effect when it is applied to a large mortgage over many years.

That is why we believe a home loan should be treated like any other major financial commitment: It needs a regular health check.

When reviewing your home loan, the headline interest rate is important, but it is not the only thing that matters.

A proper review should consider:

• Your current variable or fixed rate
• What competing lenders are offering
• Annual package fees
• Offset account benefits
• Redraw functionality
• Cashback or refinance incentives
• Loan flexibility
• Your remaining loan term
• Whether your loan structure still suits your current goals
• Whether refinancing costs outweigh the potential savings

For some borrowers, the answer may be refinancing.

For others, simply having a broker negotiate with the existing lender can sometimes produce a better outcome without moving the loan at all. The key is knowing what is available.

Is Your Offset Account Actually Saving You Money?

This has become particularly important following ASIC’s recent review of mortgage offset accounts.

ASIC reviewed eight banks representing more than 70% of Australia’s $2.5 trillion home-loan market and found weaknesses in the way offset accounts were being set up, linked and managed.

Banks had already paid more than $55 million in compensation for offset-account failures reported between September 2023 and August 2025, with further compensation expected.

Australians also held approximately $349.1 billion in mortgage offset accounts as of March 2026, up 28% in just two years.

That is a lot of money relying on these accounts working properly.

ASIC found that among the offset failures identified by banks:

• 55% involved an offset account being opened but not properly linked
• 22% involved the offset account not being opened at all
• 14% involved delays in linking the account

Your normal repayment may continue exactly as expected while you quietly pay more interest than you should.

A genuine 100% offset account reduces the balance on which your lender calculates interest.

For example:

If you have a $700,000 home loan and maintain $70,000 in your offset account, interest should generally be calculated as though the loan balance were $630,000.

Over time, that can produce substantial interest savings. but there is another consideration.

Some lenders charge higher rates or additional fees for loans with offset facilities.

So the question is not simply:

“Do I have an offset account?”

It should be:

“Is my offset correctly linked, am I actually benefiting from it, and is the overall loan still competitive?”

If you have not reviewed your mortgage recently, now is a good time.

Let Loan Nerds compare your existing loan against the market and see whether your current lender is still earning your business.